Beginner
60 mins
Teacher/Student led
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Learning Outcomes
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+70 XP
Teacher-led from the board. Pupils do not need a device, but can follow on one.

What Is Our Place Made Of?

Children find their school on a map and name nearby features. They mark high and low ground on a contour map using a key. The class describes what their place is made of using agreed words.

This lesson is made for your school

Its maps and local places change to show each school's own area: its streets, hills, castles and old workplaces. Pick your school to see the lesson as your class would.

Or see an example school first

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    Your turn
    Your teacher is running this lesson on the board. Here is the part you can try yourself.
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    Interactive slideshow
    Map explorer

    1 - Where Are We? ~5 mins

    Look at the map on the board. Our school is marked in the middle.

    Find the school. What else can you see near it? Say what you notice in plain words: roads, buildings, open ground, water, trees, or anything else the map shows.

    Our question for today is: What is our place made of?

    👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

    +15 XP

    2 - Read and Learn ~8 mins

    Let's find out what a map can tell us about the ground near our school.

    👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

    +15 XP

    3 - Mark What We Can See ~23 mins

    This map shows the high ground and the low ground near our school.

    1. Where is the ground high? Where is it low?
    2. Where are the water, the trees and the buildings?

    Now let's answer our question: What is our place made of?

    What is our place made of?

    +15 XP

    4 - Write It in Your Copy ~4 mins

    COPYBOOK MOMENT

    In your copy, finish this sentence in your own words:

    Our place is made of …

    Name three things from the key we used on the map.

    +10 XP

    5 - What We Learned ~5 mins

    A small Irish village drawn flat from directly above like a simple map: a school building in the middle, roads, rows of houses, a green field and a blue stream, no writing anywhere
    map a picture of a place drawn as if you were looking down from above
    A round green hill rising high above flat fields, seen from the side, nobody in the picture
    high ground ground that rises up
    A flat green valley floor with a stream along the bottom and hills rising on each side, nobody in the picture
    low ground ground that sits lower down
    Irish countryside with a hill, a stream, a patch of trees, a bare grey rock and a row of houses, each one clearly separate from the others, nobody in the picture
    features the things you can point at on the ground or on a map
    A simple coloured map with a small key box in one corner: coloured squares beside tiny pictures of a wave, a tree, a house and a hill, no writing anywhere
    key what each colour or mark on a map means

    We found our school on our own map and marked what our place is made of. A key lets everyone read those marks the same way.

    Talk about this: if a visitor stood at our school gate, which one thing from our map would you show them first, and why?

    +5 XP
    Pupil practice · Activity Sheet
    Module 1 · The Ground We Stand On
    Lesson 1 · What Is Our Place Made Of?
    Download Activity Sheet (PDF)
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    This lesson is copyright of Coding Ireland 2017 - 2026. Unauthorised use, copying or distribution is not allowed.
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